


The First Meeting

by Nuju



Series: Imperial Short Stories [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:52:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14130498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuju/pseuds/Nuju
Summary: The first time Captain Pellaeon and Grand Admiral Thrawn ever met since I was curious how this meeting took place.





	1. Chapter 1

It was dark. Night had fallen over the northern continent of the planet Lehon which the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera orbited. It had been around four thousand years since its discovery yet barely a few years after first contact with the indigenous Rakata, the planet had been completely wiped from the galactic record. No data was available on its plant life and potential animals, not even a reliable topographic map.  
Captain Gilad Pellaeon stood at the bridge viewport and gazed outside into the blackness of space and the planet below. He wasn’t sure what he was doing here. Intelligence had notified him that there was a potential ally of the Empire waiting on Lehon. The Empire.  
Pellaeon’s jaw clenched. Not in anger but in frustration. The Galactic Empire was no more after the devastating defeat at Endor when the Death Star exploded and the Imperial fleet was scattered. The Rebellion had won that he was sure of. Yet for some reason he could not explain, this meeting set his nerves tingling. The report mentioned nothing about this ally of the Empire, not his military or political rank, not even personal data about his physical appearance like age, height nor hair or eye color. It basically stated nothing relevant, just the coordinates for a meeting.  
What was left of the Moffs had ordered the Chimaera to check out this ominous character. All hope for the future of the Empire depended on it.  
“Captain Pellaeon?” A young Lieutenant addressed him from the deck below. “Sir, we have detected a ship leaving hyperspace at vector 2-7 mark 3. Looks like… a small shuttle of unknown design.”  
Pellaeon nodded. “That would fit the description of intelligence’s report. Contact them.”  
“They’re already hailing us, Sir”, the Lieutenant replied, “they’re requesting to speak to the captain.”  
Unconsciously, Pellaeon straightened his back and pulled at his uniform. “Put them through.”  
The Lieutenant pushed a button. “They’re receiving you.”  
Pellaeon stepped toward the captain’s chair at the back of the bridge walkway. “This is Captain Pellaeon of the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, we are–”  
He broke off as a hazy blue image appeared in front of the captain’s chair. “Good afternoon, Captain”, a deep modulated voice answered him politely. Pellaeon gulped.  
The man on the holo image wore a pristine white uniform with the officer’s bars standing out like glowing lights on his broad chest. He held his back straight, straighter than any storm trooper Pellaeon had ever seen. Could it be…?  
But that wasn’t what had the Captain spellbound. The face above the uniform was definitely not human. At least, not entirely. The skin of his face was a dark blue, accentuating his fierce and sharp features even more; his short blue black hair was combed back in perfect accordance with regulation. But the most intriguing aspect of his face were his glowing red eyes. Pellaeon needed a full moment to stop staring at the officer in front of him and to realize that he still hadn’t answered.  
“Good… afternoon, Sir”, he finally managed, “I wasn’t informed that I would be meeting such a high ranking officer out here in the middle of nowhere.”  
The man smiled. An unsettling expression in Pellaeon’s mind, yet he didn’t flinch. “No, of course you weren’t, Captain. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Grand Admiral Thrawn.”


	2. Chapter 2

Twenty minutes later, Pellaeon awaited the Grand Admiral’s shuttle in the hangar bay. To all appearances it must have seemed as if he was tensed but all in all well-composed. In fact, however, Pellaeon wasn’t feeling tense nor composed. He had noticed that while he was making his way to the main hangar of the Chimaera a drop of sweat had found its way down his back, making his uniform feel uncomfortably sticky.  
Sure the Captain had already met high ranking military officers back in the old Imperial Court on Coruscant or even when he’d been on duty on the Chimaera as a Commander. Following the death of the Chimaera's former Captain during the battle of Endor, Pellaeon had taken command to save the entire crew from the fiery death that the Executor had suffered when the Super Star Dreadnaught collided with the unfinished second Death Star. Colloquially known as the Super Star Destroyer, the Kuat Drive Yards’ most successful project had a total length of over 19,000 meters, an awesome display of turbolasers and a reputation for fast promotions. Considering Lord Vader’s typical attitude towards failure, this was not surprising. Yet for Pellaeon, the Executor had always represented, what he deemed the most important part of the Empire: A strong, military authority that didn’t need to use all its firepower but could simply and elegantly display it. And, in the same manner, this show of force was enough to quell uprisings without necessarily making use of all that brute force. Pellaeon was a military man in every way, or so he thought. He’d spend fifty years in the Imperial and Old Republic military and had a lengthy and quite impressive service record to show for it. This was the main reason why Imperial Intelligence had decided to send him to meet with the special envoy. His personal history was flawless, so he was the obvious choice.  
Now waiting the Chimaera's main hangar bay, the Captain wasn’t so sure about his exemplary career. Had he always made the right decisions? Had he always done the right thing? Considering the battle of Endor, he seriously doubted that he himself would call his career exemplary. But he was the Captain of the Chimaera now. He had a crew under him, a crew who trusted and obeyed him, young and naïve though they may be. He didn’t doubt his accomplishments. He only doubted the way in which he had achieved them. Although, he quietly admitted to himself, he wasn’t the one responsible for those massive failures like Endor or Yavin IV.  
The entrance ramp of the unfamiliar looking shuttle lowered itself to the ground and only a few seconds later, the heavy footsteps of military class boots clanked on the metal floor until Pellaeon could make out the Grand Admiral. At the foot of the ramp, the blue skinned humanoid stopped and surveyed the hanger. For the occasion, Pellaeon had ordered the finest of the storm trooper guard and senior officers that weren’t needed on the bridge at the moment down to the hangar bay. He himself was standing a few meters away from the shuttle, his back straight just as his uniform and his hands clasped firmly behind his back. A posture that he saw mirrored in Thrawn.  
“Captain Pellaeon, I presume?” The Grand Admiral asked as he approached the older human man. His voice was well modulated yet there was an interesting way in his pronunciation as he said the Captain’s name. An influence from his native tongue?  
The Captain saluted with parade ground precision. “Yes, Sir.”  
Thrawn watched him for another moment before nodding. “At ease, Captain. Tell me, how long have you been waiting here?”  
Pellaeon lowered his arm and indicated the rest of the troopers and officers standing at rigid attention with a slight nod of his own. “I’ve only just assembled these troops, Sir. As for the duration of our stay in the Lehon system, it has been two standard hours.”  
Thrawn nodded. “Excellent. That means my message arrived most timely.” His glowing red eyes turned again on Pellaeon, making it almost impossible for the Corellian not to flinch. “Walk with me, Captain. There are a lot of things I wish to discuss.”


	3. Chapter 3

The walk, as it turned out, wasn’t so much an inspection as an observation. While Pellaeon showed the Grand Admiral around the main areas of the Star Destroyer, he noted with surprise that Thrawn hadn’t really criticized anything about the state of the Chimaera. A question here and there, sometimes an inquiry on efficiency, but nothing more detailed. Even more surprising was to Pellaeon that Thrawn didn’t ask for the commanding officers quarters. The Captain was used to his superiors asking about their accommodations as soon as they arrived on a Star Destroyer. Yet Thrawn was different.   
Not just in the fact that he was a humanoid alien but more so his way of observing his surroundings. His perception was keen; he never missed any detail it seemed. When Pellaeon had shown him to the bridge, his first remark had been one on the stiffness and exaggeratingly straight posture of all the soldiers and storm troopers on the bridge and further the stale air that seemed to fill most of the corridors and the bridge of the Chimaera. He then came to the conclusions that some of the air scrubbers on the crew deck must have been overdue for maintenance.  
“Begging your pardon, Sir, but that’s simply impossible”, Pellaeon said. “We have regular maintenance and cleaning sweeps every 36 standard hours.”  
Thrawn only smiled at that. “Is that so, Captain? Then I suppose the previous sweep must have missed this air filter. Probably a young ensign of the maintenance team was on his first duty and forget to check his own quarters filter.”  
Pellaeon flushed at that. It was true, the previous maintenance sweep was conducted by a group of young man newly added to the Chimaera’s crew. The ensigns had been all nerves his first few days on the ship and Pellaeon was not surprised they could’ve made such a small but obvious mistake. Yet, as he considered what Thrawn had just said, he realized that the Admiral could not have known about this crew roster change without having access to the full data of the Chimaera.  
His confusion must have shown on his face. “You’re probably wondering how I came to that conclusion, Captain. Tell me, have you noticed how many of your men have been nervously standing by when we passed the maintenance area?,” Thrawn asked.  
Pellaeon thought back. He didn’t actually remember any of those men acting nervously as he went over the encounter in his head. “No one in particular stood out, Admiral. It seemed like there was only…” He broke off as he suddenly realized it. “Ensign Rooko.”  
The Grand Admiral nodded. “Very good, Captain. However, there is no need for any disciplinary measures, but remind the ensign to fix the particular filter at once.” He turned toward the turbolift with Pellaeon following. “At once, Sir.”

The last remaining stop on their tour through the Chimaera were the commanding officers quarters. Although Thrawn did not seem to be very interested in this part of the ship, the Captain felt obliged to show them to the admiral. They stepped through the outer door into a small anteroom brightly lit by a pair of wall lamps glowing with a warm yellow light. The walls were a dark grey, as neutral as the rest of the Star Destroyer walls. The next door was smaller and locked by a security terminal.  
“I have a datapad with the pass codes for the outer and inner door right here, Sir”, Pellaeon said but Thrawn only stepped forward and entered an eight digit code. The door panel hummed and read on the display “Access Granted” as it glided open. For a moment Pellaeon was spellbound. When he regained his composure, he could only manage “Sir, this is a private security code, how…?”   
Thrawn looked over his shoulder at Pellaeon. “You seem to forget that I have been with the Empire for quite some time, Captain. I’ve met your predecessor the day he was promoted to Captain of the Chimaera. As simple as he was, I had no trouble figuring out that he wouldn’t choose a complex pass code as his choice of art suggests.” He pointed to the two wall lamps. “These two lamps were produced the same year as the Empire rose. Their serial number has eight digits, which are engraved at the top left side of each lamp.” As the admiral entered the second chamber, Pellaeon was still fumbling for words but he hurried after him anyway. The inner chamber was a large room filled with a luxurious couch and exquisite decorations, on each side of the room there were holographic projections of the view outside the Chimaera. To the left, there was Lehon, to the right, there were billions of stars, bright and dim, speckled across the entire wall.   
Yet as Pellaeon was taking in the view, he noticed that Thrawn did not heed any of it. His focus laid on a formation in the center of the room covered with a large white sheet. He approached it slowly, his glowing red eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed as he gripped a part of the sheet and tore it down from the formation. Underneath, there was a duplicate of the Captain’s chair on the bridge, surrounded by a double display ring of which all were dark. A small smile appeared on Thrawn’s face as he turned to Pellaeon.  
“Captain, it has been no coincidence that the Chimaera was sent to meet me here at Lehon. I knew that only one ship in the entire Imperial fleet could have this kind of room.” He gestured to the chair. “This secondary command chair should enable me to establish the Chimaera as the new flagship of the Imperial fleet since it will allow you to keep control of the bridge and give me the opportunity to meditate in silence on the overall strategy for our campaign against the rebellion.”  
Pellaeon stiffened to attention. “You will be taking over the Chimaera, Sir?”  
Thrawn watched him closely. “Yes. I need a reliable ship and crew under my command to realize this plan. Yet for now, Captain, I will need some time rearranging this room.”  
Pellaeon knew it was a dismissal but he still felt the need to say something before leaving. Serving under a Grand Admiral was something he could never have imagined nor dreamed of for his entire career. “Of course, Sir”, he said.  
Then added. “And if I may say so, Admiral, it’s good to have you back.”  
Thrawn smiled and inclined his head. “Dismissed, Captain.”  
Pellaeon could not hide a smile. “Yes, Sir.” He saluted and returned to the bridge. There was a lot to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though a little late, here is the last chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it!


End file.
